December 10, 1896, was the date of the first intercollegiate basketball game, between Wesleyan and Yale. It wasn’t a high-scoring game, just 4-3. Perhaps those players would have benefitted from doing this Science Buddies project that asks you to determine whether the starting position of the ball affects the shooter’s percentage in making the basket. Using a video camera to record the shots will help in collecting and analyzing your data, and be sure to understand the use of a protractor so you can measure ball angles. Plotting the information on a bar graph will help you see how various hand positions on the ball affect the trajectory of the ball. And all you wanted to do was shoot some hoops!
courtesy of Knovation
